</p>
<p>
-There are two reasons I can imagine someone wanting to do this:
+There are two reasons I can imagine someone wanting to do this:
</p>
<ol>
<li>You have, or are developing, a chess engine but you don't want to
-write your own graphical interface.
+write your own graphical interface.
<li>You have, or are developing,a chess engine, and you want to
interface it to the Internet Chess Server.
</ol>
DLLs, BSOD, or any of the other infinite complexity that
Microsoft has created just to talk between two programs. A WinBoard
chess engine is a Win32 console program that simply reads from its
-standard input and writes to its standard output. See sections
+standard input and writes to its standard output. See sections
<a href="#5">5</a> and <a href="#6">6</a> below for additional details.
</p>
<font color=red>
This release of the protocol specification is the first to carry a
version number of its own -- version 2. Previous releases simply
-carried a last-modified date and were loosely tied to specific
+carried a last-modified date and were loosely tied to specific
releases of xboard and WinBoard. The version number "1" applies
generally to all those older versions of the protocol.
</font>
<font color=red>
<p>Protocol version 2 remains compatible with older engines but has
-several new capabilities. In particular, it adds the
+several new capabilities. In particular, it adds the
"feature" command, a new mechanism for making backward-compatible
changes and extensions to the protocol. Engines that do not support a
particular new feature do not have to use it; new features are not
a pipe, a console, or something else. (More Microsoft brain damage
here -- did they never hear of device independence?) For pipes, you
can use <tt>PeekNamedPipe</tt> to poll (even when the pipe is unnamed).
-For consoles,
+For consoles,
you can use <tt>GetNumberOfConsoleInputEvents</tt>. For sockets only, you can
use <tt>select()</tt>. It might be possible to use
-<tt>WaitForSingleObject</tt> more
+<tt>WaitForSingleObject</tt> more
generally, but I have not tried it. Some code to do these things can
be found in Crafty's utility.c, but I don't guarantee that it's all
correct or optimal.
characters in the buffer whenever you poll. C I/O libraries generally
do not provide any portable way to do this. Under C++, you can use
<tt>cin.rdbuf()->in_avail()</tt>. This method has been reported to
-work with
+work with
EXchess. Remember that if there are no characters in the buffer, you
still have to poll the underlying file descriptor too, using the
method described above.
<p>
Here are details for the curious. If xboard needs to send a command
-when it is the chess engine's move (such as before the "?" command),
+when it is the chess engine's move (such as before the "?" command),
it sends a <tt>SIGINT</tt> first. If xboard needs to send commands when it is
not the chess engine's move, but the chess engine may be pondering
(thinking on its opponent's time) or analyzing (analysis or analyze
Another <tt>SIGINT</tt> is not sent until another move is made, even if xboard
issues more commands. This behavior is necessary for GNU Chess 4. The
first <tt>SIGINT</tt> stops it from pondering until the next move, but on some
-systems, GNU Chess 4 will die if it receives a <tt>SIGINT</tt> when not
+systems, GNU Chess 4 will die if it receives a <tt>SIGINT</tt> when not
actually thinking or pondering.
</p>
game. If your engine can't play multiple games, you can disable reuse
<font color=red>
either with the "feature" command (beginning in protocol version
-2; see below) or
+2; see below) or
</font>
with xboard's -xreuse (or -xreuse2) command line
option. xboard will then ask the process to quit after each game and
"xboard" command comes in.
<p>
+<dt><font color=blue><strong>gui GUI_NAME VERSION.SUBVERSION</strong></font>
+<dd><font color=blue>
+This is a new feature. The GUI sending after the "xboard" command and before
+"protover N" string the command "gui <GUI_NAME> <VERSION>.<SUBVERSION>"
+to the engine. The GUI_NAME is a string. VERSION and SUBVERSION is <i><strong>one</strong></i>
+character.<br>
+This command will be send always. You don't need to answer because its only
+a information for the engine. I recommend that the engine not response.
+The idea behind this command is that the engine now know which special feature
+support the named GUI.<br>
+To make the GUI string clear the known GUIs will be predefined:<br>
+<br>
+gui arena = send by Arena<br>
+gui chessassistant = send by Chess Assistant<br>
+gui chessbase = send by ChessBase<br>
+gui chessmaster = send by ChessMaster<br>
+gui chesspartner = send by ChessPartner GUI<br>
+gui wb2uci = send by wb2uci adapter<br>
+gui xboard = send by Winboard/Xboard<br>
+<br>
+This list is not completely and will be extend in the future.<br>
+<br>
+Example:<br>
+Winboard / Xboard send:<br>
+xboard\n<br>
+gui xboard 4.2\n<br>
+protover 2\n<br>
+</font>
+<p>
+
+
+
<dt><font color=red><strong>protover N</strong></font>
<dd><font color=red>
Beginning in protocol version 2 (in which N=2), this command will
<dd>
<font color=red>
(This command is obsolete as of protocol version 2, but is still
-sent in some situations to accommodate older engines unless you disable it
+sent in some situations to accommodate older engines unless you disable it
with the feature command.)
</font>
Set White on move. Set the engine to play Black. Stop clocks.
<p>
-
+
<dt><strong>black</strong>
<dd>
<font color=red>
(This command is obsolete as of protocol version 2, but is still
-sent in some situations to accommodate older engines unless you disable it
+sent in some situations to accommodate older engines unless you disable it
with the feature command.)
</font>
Set Black on move. Set the engine to play White. Stop clocks.
<dt><strong>level MPS BASE INC</strong>
<dd>Set time controls. See the <a href="#11">Time Control</a> section below.
<p>
-
+
<dt><strong>st TIME</strong>
<dd>Set time controls. See the <a href="#11">Time Control</a> section
below. The commands "level" and "st" are not used together.
<font color=red>
Beginning in protocol version 2, if you can't handle the time and
otim commands, you can use the "feature" command to disable them; see
-below.
+below.
</font>
The following techniques from older protocol versions also
work: You can ignore the time and otim commands (that is, treat them
the protocol to be fixed, so it is highly recommended that you
implement it. It is especially important in simple engines that do
not ponder and do not poll for input while thinking, but it is needed in all
-engines.
+engines.
</p>
</font>
be used to send an illegal position to the engine. The user can
create any position with xboard's Edit Position command (even, say,
an empty board, or a board with 64 white kings and no black ones).
-If your engine receives a position that it considers illegal,
+If your engine receives a position that it considers illegal,
I suggest that you send the response "tellusererror Illegal position",
and then respond to any attempted move with "Illegal move" until
the next new, edit, or setboard command.</p>
<p>
This sequence is used to avoid the "black" command, which is now
-considered obsolete and which many engines never did implement as
+considered obsolete and which many engines never did implement as
specified in this document.
</p>
<dt><strong>easy</strong>
<dd>Turn off pondering.
<p>
-
+
<dt><strong>post</strong>
-<dd>Turn on thinking/pondering output.
+<dd>Turn on thinking/pondering output.
See <a href="#10">Thinking Output</a> section.
<p>
<dt><strong>nopost</strong>
<dd>Turn off thinking/pondering output.
<p>
-
+
<dt><strong>analyze</strong>
<dd>Enter analyze mode. See <a href="#12">Analyze Mode</a> section.
<p>
<dt><strong>name X</strong> <dd>This command informs the engine of its
opponent's name. When the engine is playing on a chess server, xboard
-obtains the opponent's name from the server.
+obtains the opponent's name from the server.
<font color=red>
When the engine is
playing locally against a human user, xboard obtains the user's login
not appear on servers using outdated versions of the FICS code.) In
Zippy mode, it sends these ratings on to the chess engine using the
"rating" command. The chess engine's own rating comes first, and if
-either opponent is not rated, his rating is given as 0.
+either opponent is not rated, his rating is given as 0.
<font color=red>
In the future this command may also be used in other modes, if ratings
are known.
>zippy.README</a> for information on Zippy mode and how to turn on the
bughouse support. The bughouse move format is given above. xboard
sends the following additional commands to the engine when in bughouse
-mode.
+mode.
Commands to inform your engine of the partner's game state may
be added in the future.
</p>
<p>
<dt><strong>ptell <text></strong>
-<dd>Your partner told you <text>, either with a ptell or an ordinary tell.
+<dd>Your partner told you <text>, either with a ptell or an ordinary tell.
<p>
<dt><strong>holding [<white>] [<black>]</strong>
<dl>
<dt><font color=red>
-<strong>feature FEATURE1=VALUE1 FEATURE2=VALUE2 ...</strong>
+<strong>feature FEATURE1=VALUE1 FEATURE2=VALUE2 ...</strong>
</font>
<dd><font color=red>
<dd><font color=red>
If san=1, xboard will send moves to the engine in standard algebraic
notation (SAN); for example, Nf3. If san=0, xboard will send moves in
-coordinate notation; for example, g1f3. See MOVE in
+coordinate notation; for example, g1f3. See MOVE in
<a href="#8">section 8</a> above for more details of both kinds of notation.
</font>
</font>
<dt><font color=red>
-<strong>reuse</strong> (boolean, default 1, recommended 1)
+<strong>reuse</strong> (boolean, default 1, recommended 1)
</font>
<dd><font color=red>
If reuse=1, xboard may reuse your engine for multiple games. If
</font>
<dt><font color=red>
-<strong>colors</strong> (boolean, default 1, recommended 0)
+<strong>colors</strong> (boolean, default 1, recommended 0)
</font>
<dd><font color=red>
If colors=1, xboard uses the obsolete "white" and "black"
Illegal move (moving into check): e1g1
</pre>
<p>
-Generally, xboard will never send an ambiguous move, so it does not
-matter whether you respond to such a move with an Illegal move message
+Generally, xboard will never send an ambiguous move, so it does not
+matter whether you respond to such a move with an Illegal move message
or an Error message.
</p>
MESSAGE\n" to the ICS.
<p>
-<dt><strong>tellothers MESSAGE</strong>
+<dt><strong>tellothers MESSAGE</strong>
<dd>This command lets the engine give a message to people watching the
game other than the engine's opponent. MESSAGE consists of any
characters, including whitespace, to the end of the line. When the
<dt><strong>tellall MESSAGE</strong>
<dd>This command lets the engine give a message to its opponent and
-other people watching the game,
+other people watching the game,
independent of whether the opponent is a user on the local machine or
a remote ICS user (Zippy mode). MESSAGE consists of any characters,
including whitespace, to the end of the line. When the engine is
Meaning:
</p>
-9 ply, score=1.56, time = 10.84 seconds, nodes=48000,
+9 ply, score=1.56, time = 10.84 seconds, nodes=48000,
PV = "Nf3 Nc6 Nc3 Nf6"
<p>
</p>
<pre>
- 2. 14 0 38 d1d2 e8e7
- 3+ 78 0 65 d1d2 e8e7 d2d3
- 3& 14 0 89 d1d2 e8e7 d2d3
- 3& 76 0 191 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3
- 3. 76 0 215 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3
- 4& 15 0 366 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6
- 4. 15 0 515 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6
- 5+ 74 0 702 d1e2 f7f5 e2e3 e8e7 e3f4
- 5& 71 0 1085 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3f4
- 5. 71 0 1669 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3f4
- 6& 48 0 3035 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
- 6. 48 0 3720 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
- 7& 48 0 6381 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
- 7. 48 0 10056 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
- 8& 66 1 20536 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 g7g5 a2a4 f7f5
- 8. 66 1 24387 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 g7g5 a2a4 f7f5
- 9& 62 2 38886 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 a2a4 h5h4
- d4e4
- 9. 62 4 72578 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 a2a4 h5h4
- d4e4
-10& 34 7 135944 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 c2c4 h5h4
- d4e4 f7f5 e4f4
-10. 34 9 173474 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 c2c4 h5h4
- d4e4 f7f5 e4f4
+ 2. 14 0 38 d1d2 e8e7
+ 3+ 78 0 65 d1d2 e8e7 d2d3
+ 3& 14 0 89 d1d2 e8e7 d2d3
+ 3& 76 0 191 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3
+ 3. 76 0 215 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3
+ 4& 15 0 366 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6
+ 4. 15 0 515 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6
+ 5+ 74 0 702 d1e2 f7f5 e2e3 e8e7 e3f4
+ 5& 71 0 1085 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3f4
+ 5. 71 0 1669 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3f4
+ 6& 48 0 3035 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
+ 6. 48 0 3720 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
+ 7& 48 0 6381 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
+ 7. 48 0 10056 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3e4 f7f5 e4d4
+ 8& 66 1 20536 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 g7g5 a2a4 f7f5
+ 8. 66 1 24387 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 g7g5 a2a4 f7f5
+ 9& 62 2 38886 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 a2a4 h5h4
+ d4e4
+ 9. 62 4 72578 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 a2a4 h5h4
+ d4e4
+10& 34 7 135944 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 c2c4 h5h4
+ d4e4 f7f5 e4f4
+10. 34 9 173474 d1e2 e8e7 e2e3 e7e6 e3d4 h7h5 c2c4 h5h4
+ d4e4 f7f5 e4f4
</pre>
<p>If your engine is pondering (thinking on its opponent's time) in post
<p>xboard supports analyzing fresh games, edited positions, and games
from files. However, all of these look the same from the chess
engine's perspective. Basically, the engine just has to respond to the
-"analyze" command.
+"analyze" command.
<font color=red>
Beginning in protocol version 2,
if your engine does not support analyze mode, it should use
-the feature command to set analyze=0.
+the feature command to set analyze=0.
</font>
The older method of
printing the error message "Error (unknown command): analyze" in
</p>
<p>
-To enter analyze mode, xboard sends the command sequence "post", "analyze".
+To enter analyze mode, xboard sends the command sequence "post", "analyze".
Analyze mode in your engine should be
similar to force mode, except that your engine thinks about what move
it would make next if it were on move. Your engine should accept the
<strong>hint</strong> Show the predicted move from this
position, if any; see above.</font>
</ul>
-
+
<p>
If the user selects "Periodic Updates", xboard will send the string
".\n" to the chess engine periodically during analyze mode, unless the
<p>
Some engines have variant interpretations of the force/go/white/black,
-time/otim, and hard/easy command sets.
+time/otim, and hard/easy command sets.
In order to accommodate these older engines, xboard uses these commands
only according to the stylized patterns ("idioms") given in this section.
The obsolete white and black commands
<dt><strong>go</strong>
<dd>Sent when the engine is in force mode or playing Black but should
switch to playing White. This sequence is sent only when White is
-already on move.
+already on move.
<font color=red>
If you set the feature colors=0, "white" is not sent.
</font>
<dt><strong>go</strong>
<dd>Sent when the engine is in force mode or playing White but should
switch to playing Black. This sequence is sent only when Black is
-already on move.
+already on move.
<font color=red>
If you set the feature colors=0, "black" is not sent.
</font>
<dt><strong>go</strong>
<dd>Sent when Black is on move, the engine is in force mode or playing
White, and the engine's clock needs to be updated before it starts
-playing.
+playing.
The initial "white" is a kludge to accommodate GNU Chess
-4's variant interpretation of these commands.
+4's variant interpretation of these commands.
<font color=red>
If you set the feature colors=0, "white" and "black" are not sent.
</font>
<dt><strong>go</strong>
<dd>Sent when White is on move, the engine is in force mode or playing
Black, and the engine's clock needs to be updated before it starts
-playing. See previous idiom.
+playing. See previous idiom.
The initial "black" is a kludge to accommodate GNU Chess
-4's variant interpretation of these commands.
+4's variant interpretation of these commands.
<font color=red>
If you set the feature colors=0, "black" and "white" are not sent.
</font>
projects / xboard.git / commitdiff